As you probably remember, I work for IBM. We're a big company and a lot of my work, while satisfying on many levels, is... well... work! I probably deal with many of the same mysteries of the corporate world that you do. From time to time I wonder if I know the people being satirized in Dilbert. After a while it can feel like it's all about the problems and the products and the process of keeping everying going from day to day to day.

Then, some days I get a reminder of how thrilling it is to be around when someone creates the future. We saw some of that when Watson cleaned house playing against two strong apponents on Jeapardy. (See my blog entry at that time to watch it if you missed it.)

This breakthrough will make for faster and faster communication for electronics, and the technique appears to be affordable enough to actually use. That means more computing power available for media, smartphones, tablets, televisions and everything else which might house computing power. This breakthrough will permit the pushing of much more information at unimagined speeds–terabits per second!

It's unclear as to when this will make its way into marketed products, but it is a huge game-changer. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Today I read an article on opensource.com called "Unschooling is the open source way". I'm fascinated with the subject of alternative approaches to education. I think that humans are naturally curious. We are driven to want to explore and create. Somewhere along the way that behavior is either rewarded and nurtured or discouraged and discarded.

In my youth, people who cared very much for me tried to help me to focus my curiosity in specific directions. Some of the things that attracted me were considered "not productive" and I was discouraged from pursuing those things to some degree. I was never a very good follower– sort of a lone explorer– so I never fully grasped onto the so-called "important things" and I never got a complete foothold on what I was naturally wired for. Needless to say my formal education process was a bit of a struggle. Now, in the "real world" I find myself embracing my genuine curiosities and not simply trying to do what I am directed to do. The result? I'm having a better time than I ever have in my life and applying skills to my job that no one would have thought to suggest.

I think our future world demands that we stay curious. We have moved far beyond the Industrial Age's need for a person who will spend their entire career performing a set of menial tasks. Technology can and should step in for those things because humans are too valuable for them. Unschooling specifically cultivates the curiosity that is natural to children and helps them learn how to learn. Once you know how to teach yourself things then you can go where need takes you.

Here is a brief TED video by Gever Tulley, discussing his approach to teaching life lessons through tinkering:

Our future society demands people who have multiple skills with the ability to gain more when the situation demands it. They need to be driven to move forward despite the obstacles that are thrown at them by their forebearers. Perhaps a healthy dose of unschooling is just the right way to make it happen.

I've been getting news here and there about the parting thoughts of Microsoft's software chief, Ray Ozzie. He wrote a blog entry which appears to see the future as not wrapped up on a PC. I'm still chewing on this one.

My general view of Open Source is that it should take on the things that are so fundamental that they should belong to everyone, or things that are ignored because they can't be sufficiently monetized. (Obviously Open Source moves beyond that scope, and shall as long as there are technical enthusiasts who want to make things better for the sake of having them be better.) As devices like smart phones, and things we haven't even imagined yet, become a part of our daily lives, the landscape changes. Trying to hold onto the old paradigms (did I just use that word?) becomes unreasonable. Things keep moving forward.

Perhaps we really are entering a stage of computing where the hardware and the specific applications become less important than the integration and accessibility. I'd like to believe that Open Source can play a huge role in this by providing a sort of neutral space where everyone can play without having to "lose." Companies could roll their expertise and service into popular and effective projects. This doesn't mean that people won't pay for anything anymore. Many of us choose to pay for service or packaging or expertise in areas where we could probably do it ourselves. Technology will be no different.

I have no grand insights here. Like I said, I'm still chewing on this. It's very interesting, though. Very interesting.